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Production Information

In The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, Denzel Washington stars as New York City

subway dispatcher Walter Garber, whose ordinary day is thrown into chaos by an

audacious crime: the hijacking of a subway train. John Travolta stars as Ryder,

the criminal mastermind who, as leader of a highly-armed gang of four, threatens

to execute the train’s passengers unless a large ransom is paid within one hour.

As the tension mounts beneath his feet, Garber employs his vast knowledge of

the subway system in a battle to outwit Ryder and save the hostages. But

there’s one riddle Garber can't solve: even if the thieves get the money, how can

they possibly escape?

Columbia Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures present in association

with Relativity Media a Scott Free / Escape Artists production, a film by Tony

Scott, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3. The film stars Denzel Washington, John

Travolta, John Turturro, Luis Guzman, Michael Rispoli, and James Gandolfini.

Directed by Tony Scott. Produced by Todd Black, Tony Scott, Jason Blumenthal,

and Steve Tisch. Screenplay by Brian Helgeland. Based on the novel by John

Godey. Executive producers are Barry Waldman, Michael Costigan, and Ryan

Kavanaugh. Director of Photography is Tobias Schliessler, ASC. Production

Designer is Chris Seagers. Editor is Chris Lebenzon, A.C.E. Costume Designer

is Renée Ehrlich Kalfus. Music by Harry Gregson-Williams.

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 has been rated R by the Motion Picture Association

of America for violence and pervasive language. The film will be released in

theaters nationwide on June 12, 2009.

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ABOUT THE FILM

Director Tony Scott frames the hijacking of a subway train and the subsequent

standoff between cops and crooks as a terrifying cat-and-mouse game, pitting an

ordinary, overburdened train dispatcher, played by Denzel Washington, against a

mercurial vengeful killer portrayed by John Travolta in the new action thriller The

Taking of Pelham 1 2 3.

Washington says that he was attracted to the role by finding a most unusual

character at the center of the action-thriller. “He’s not a cop, he is a civil servant,”

the actor explains. “When he’s confronted with Ryder’s demands, he’s like, ‘Look,

where’s the hostage negotiator? This is not what I do.’ Walter Garber is not a

superhero. He’s scared.”

Similarly, John Travolta found his character, Ryder, to be loaded with

possibilities. “Playing a bad guy is freeing because good guys restrain

themselves,” explains Travolta. “With a bad guy you can create your own moral

fiber for him in varying degrees, and usually out of a wide envelope of behavior. I

can be wild, calm, nutty, charming, or whatever I want.”

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 began life as a bestselling novel by John Godey.

The book’s central puzzle kept readers guessing. Who would rob a subway

train? You’d have to be crazy – the subway is a closed system. Even if you get

the money, there’s nowhere to escape. The novel was first adapted for the

screen in 1974, starring Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw, and today remains a

cult classic.

The filmmakers approached the new adaptation – Scott, screenwriter Brian

Helgeland, and producers Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal, and Steve Tisch, along

with Scott – not as a remake of the classic film, which they felt stands on its own.

Instead, they returned to the novel, retelling the story as a highly contemporary

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thriller and reinventing it for a modern-day New York. “It’s a great story, yet

unknown to new generations of filmgoers,” Scott says. “The world, and New

York City in particular, has changed a lot since 1974.”

John Travolta says that though the new film has some of the same elements as

the first adaptation, the new film is “The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 on steroids –

very intense, very hyped up, and very contemporary.”

“I’ve always liked stories where people are put in extreme circumstances, and

you see how they respond when things go wrong,” says Helgeland, who won an

Oscar® for his script for L.A. Confidential. He approached producer Todd Black,

for whom Helgeland had written and directed A Knight’s Tale.

“We watched the movie again and realized what a fun story it was,” remembers

Black, whose producing credits include The Pursuit of Happyness and Knowing.

“It felt right not for a remaking, but a retelling.”

That retelling would set the film apart from the earlier adaptation in crucial ways.

“I was interested in developing much more of a relationship between the

dispatcher and the hijacker,” says Helgeland. “I felt neither the novel nor the

original movie really forced Garber and Ryder to crawl under each other’s skin to

figure each other out.”

The dispatcher, Garber, seeks to clear a stain on his reputation: a charge of

bribery that resulted in his demotion from MTA administrator to dispatcher and

now drives him to go head-to-head with the hijacker. “He believes if he helps the

people on the train, he can make amends,” Helgeland says. “Garber seeks

redemption.”

By contrast, Ryder seeks revenge. Travolta’s Ryder is terrifyingly intelligent and

red-hot manic, one moment showing mercy, then in a split second exploding in

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deadly fury. In his previous life, he thrived on Wall Street until imprisoned for

embezzlement; now his motivations include settling a score with New York City.

The characters are as opposed as the worlds they inhabit. “Garber works for

MTA NYC Transit, above ground, and when we researched it, we found it was

very high-tech, like NASA,” says Scott. “I took that world, the quiet and

cleanliness and high tech quality of the MTA, and balanced that with the

darkness and grittiness and bowels of New York in the subways.”

The director believed there was only one way to achieve his vision. “Tony felt

very strongly about shooting the real tunnels when we decided to make this

movie,” Barry Waldman, executive producer, remembers. “He wanted the sound

and the fright of being in and around moving trains, for the subway to become a

third character after Denzel and John.”

“Usually people build sets and try to reconstruct it on a stage instead, but there’s

nothing like capturing reality,” Waldman continues. “It’s difficult, it’s dirty, but it’s

exciting. It’s a challenge, and I always love a challenge.” And a challenge it was

– with temperatures above ground hitting 100 degrees and below ground even

hotter.

Scott ended up filming in the subway for four weeks, the longest and most

extensive shoot ever in New York’s subway. The production was granted access

to areas NYC Transit had never before allowed a film crew, including the makers

of the original Pelham.

Shooting in the tunnels can be a harrowing experience, with 400 tons of train

roaring past only inches away, while the train’s “third rail shoes,” or electrical

conductors, speed by even closer, with 600 volts of electricity coursing through

them. “You don’t realize how big the trains are when you’re on the platform,”

Washington explains. “But when you’re down on the tracks, those things are

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monsters, rolling at 40, 50 miles an hour. The wind can whip you around, so

you’ve got to brace yourself.”

NYC Transit officials kept close watch to ensure safety; still, actors and crew

were forewarned, as is every individual who enters the tunnels, that trains could

come on any track, at any moment, and from any direction… and everyone

should always assume the third rail is live at all times.

At the helm of The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 is Tony Scott, the-man-behind-the-

mayhem of numerous action classics, including Top Gun, Crimson Tide, True

Romance, Man on Fire, and Déjà Vu.

With camera movement, quick pans, saturated colors, and selected focus among

his inimitable visual vocabulary, the director builds an escalating sense of

suspense and dread in the thriller. “Tony is really a painter,” says Black. “The

way he shot the scenes in the subway completely hypnotizes you and makes you

feel like you’re right there.”

Scott views the tunnels as a unique and separate world. “My goal was to touch

that world in a way that I felt nobody has ever touched it before.”

CASTING THE FILM

At the moment that the filmmakers began to consider a new adaptation of The

Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, they had one name in mind for their leading man. “Only

an actor like Denzel Washington, with his powerful screen presence and

immense talent, could make such an ordinary character in an ordinary desk job

so compelling to watch,” Helgeland says.

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Nor did it hurt that Washington had a long history with Scott, starring in three of

the director’s films, Déjà Vu, Man on Fire, and Crimson Tide. “He’s the best, he

has a good heart,” Washington says about Scott. “Tony works harder than

anybody, so whenever he calls I come running.”

Washington also had a strong professional relationship with the screenwriter and

the producer who courted him. Helgeland had written Man on Fire that starred

Washington, while Black produced the actor’s two acclaimed directorial efforts,

Antwone Fisher and The Great Debaters. Washington was eager to work with

Black again. “Todd Black knows what he’s doing,” says Washington. “He’s the

consummate professional producer, one of the biggest in Hollywood.”

Scott was impressed by Washington’s take on the character. “He said, ‘I’ve

played FBI, I’ve played CIA.’ He recently played a hostage negotiator in Inside

Man, so he didn’t want to do that. He was looking for something different. We

found the difference in simplicity. Denzel plays Garber as the Everyman, the guy

next door, in a very honest way, and it’s the perfect counterpoint to John

Travolta’s angry character.”

Helgeland adds, “It’s compelling to watch how someone who has no experience

reacts when the phone rings and a killer is on the other end.”

For the role, Washington talked to veteran subway workers, including one who

just retired after 60 years. He also befriended Joseph Jackson, a train dispatcher

in the Rail Control Center. Like Washington’s character, Jackson began his

career driving a subway train. Responsible each day for the safety of the five

million passengers that traverse an underground system as large as the city

itself, a dispatcher’s most critical skill is staying cool during an emergency.

“Passengers tend to get panicky, especially in the tunnels,” says Jackson, who

served as a technical advisor on the film. “Plus, there are only two crew members

aboard each train to help. You don’t want people trying to get off the trains in

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between stations.” In this case, the dispatcher can be the critical liaison that

smooths out an emergency situation.

Observing the dispatcher, Washington seemed “like a computer, taking it all in,”

remembers producer Todd Black. “Denzel would watch silently, then ask

questions. He knows how to embody real people, to capture their gestures,

things they would say. There’s no one better at that.”

In a sense, Washington had spent many years preparing for the role. “I grew up

in New York and I took the 2 train from 241st and White Plains Road every day,”

he says. “When I was a kid, I’d go between cars, between stations, sneak down

the side of the train. You never went too far. It was interesting, after 30 years, to

be on the subway.”

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 was also unusual for the actors in that the two main

characters, Garber and Ryder, are apart for so much of the film. Garber is above

ground in the control center as Ryder manipulates him from the subways below.

“For the first six weeks, I didn’t even see John,” says Washington. “We were

both on set, but I was in one room and he was in another. We had a very

interesting scene in which he embarrasses Garber; he finds out a lot about

Garber and vice versa. We develop a relationship, twisted as it may be. The

trick, when you have these two characters on opposite ends, is how you’re going

to get them together.”

Indeed, with Garber cast, the list of actors who could hold their own opposite

Washington’s dynamic screen presence was short. The role of Ryder required

an actor who could make the character larger than life. John Travolta fit the bill.

“When you give him a truly imposing role, Travolta knows how to pump a color

and energy into it that I think no other actor can,” Black says.

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Tony Scott and his team researched prison culture, which influenced Ryder’s

closely cropped hair, handlebar mustache, and tattooed neck. While imprisoned

for a white-collar crime, Ryder underwent a fundamental transformation. “We

found several people who’d embezzled money and gone to prison for it and

came out very changed by their experience,” Helgeland says.

Ryder aims his rage at New York City as a living, breathing, byzantine entity that

destroys lives. “He’s built up resentment toward the city, feeling betrayed and

mistreated,” Travolta says. “I decided he was calculated to some degree, but at

the same time, he is a stimulus/response type of guy, meaning you can push his

buttons. Say the wrong word, and he goes off.”

For supporting roles, the filmmakers drew from New York City’s rich pool of

talent, including several actors who previously had worked with Washington,

Travolta, or Scott. James Gandolfini appeared in the director’s True Romance

and Crimson Tide before becoming a household name as the crime boss of “The

Sopranos.” He goes from mobster to mayor of New York in The Taking of

Pelham 1 2 3.

Travolta was also delighted that Gandolfini took on an altogether different role

from his seasoned bad-guy persona; their professional relationship dates back to

Get Shorty. “I’ve known him for 14 years – this is our fifth movie together,”

Travolta says. Travolta sees Gandolfini’s mayor, an independently wealthy

businessman plagued by waning popularity, as a departure. “He plays someone

who is more aware of self-image, and what he means to his public. I think that

was a nice change for James.”

Tony Scott had long wanted to work with John Turturro and had come close on

several projects, but it has never worked out until now. The director recruited the

actor – a favorite of the Coen Brothers (Barton Fink and O Brother, Where Art

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Thou) and Spike Lee (Do The Right Thing and Mo’ Better Blues) – to portray

Lieutenant Vincent Camonetti, the head of the New York Police Department’s

hostage negotiation team.

As a native New Yorker, Turturro was a big fan of the 1974 film. He points out

his character wasn’t in the original Pelham. “Back then, the NYPD didn’t have a

hostage negotiator,” Turturro explains. “The job was invented afterwards.”

The screenwriters based the role on the current commanding officer of the

NYPD’s Hostage Negotiation Team, Lt. Jack Cambria. “Almost all of John’s

dialogue comes directly from Cambria. He told us exactly what he would say to a

terrorist,” Helgeland says.

Lt. Cambria, who also served as a technical advisor, compliments Turturro as a

quick study. “We know very well every time we have to enter somebody’s house

for an arrest, there’s probably a 50/50 chance at best of coming out, but the

hostages expect you’re going to save the world. You have to maintain an air of

confidence to do this work, and John Turturro is outstanding at pulling that off.”

“After each take, I’d talk to Jack,” says Turturro. “It’s essential that you have

these people around you. He was very thoughtful and not inhibiting. He’s been

doing the job for so long that the acting challenge is to capture a piece of it while

knowing that you’re not going to get the whole thing. So I’d check with Jack –

‘what do you think, what would you do, was that real, was that bogus’ – and he’d

say, ‘Yeah, I can buy that.’”

Though not surprising, it is interesting the way Turturro draws a distinction

between acting and police work. If the job of acting is finding the emotion of a

scene, he says, “being a cop is about separating your feelings from your job. I’ve

played a few cops, I’ve done some research, and I have tremendous respect for

what they do. It’s a hard job.”

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Washington says that when he got together with Turturro and Gandolfini, he

would experience another transformation. “John, Gandolfini and myself, we’re a

bunch of New York guys, so it was a lot of fun. All I had to do was sit in a room

with them and before you know it, I’m Italian.”

Hovering over Garber’s desk is his hard-nosed boss, the head of NYC Transit’s

Rail Control Center. John Johnson, portrayed by Michael Rispoli, has no doubt

Garber is guilty of the bribery charges and openly insults and harasses him. The

character of Johnson takes his name from the real chief transportation officer at

NYC Transit (but not modeled on him). “The real John Johnson is a pretty

formidable guy,” according to Rispoli. “I said to him, ‘You’re an ex-Marine?’ and

he says, ‘There are no ex-Marines.’ That’s the way he runs the Control Center,

with real organizational skill and command.”

The lone NYC Transit employee who believes in Garber is Delgado, a rookie, up-

and-coming train dispatcher. During his research, Ramon Rodriguez observed

camaraderie among dispatchers in the frequently high-pressured environment of

the Rail Control Center. “They’re on the mic all day, giving instructions. It’s

almost like working at an airport,” says Rodriguez, whose credits include HBO’s

“The Wire” and the recent feature Surfer, Dude. “They look out for each other.

There’s a brotherhood.”

Below ground, Ryder relies on Ramos, a brooding, disgruntled former train

operator he met in prison, whose first-hand experience of the tunnels is vital to

the hijacking and, most importantly, the escape. Travolta easily played off Luis

Guzman, familiar with the veteran actor from working together before. “He does a

very simple, very introspective take on his character in the movie, which I like,”

Travolta says. “He doesn’t realize what he’s gotten into until he’s in the middle of

madness.”

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Guzman understood how Ryder could sell his character such an outrageous

scheme. “Ryder is Mr. Smooth Talker, Mr. Salesman, and Ramos naively buys

the whole plan,” says Guzman. “Once the gang has taken over the train and

starts killing passengers, though, he has second thoughts. During filming, I spent

a lot of the time in my own head, saying ‘What the hell am I doing here, and how

can I get out of this?’”

The added strength of such a diverse supporting cast only intensifies and

accentuates the heavy pairing of Washington and Travolta. “Viewers should see

this film if they want to be thoroughly entertained by two brilliant actors dancing

with one another for two hours,” Black says. “It constantly keeps you on the edge

of your chair.”

FILMING ABOVE GROUND: THE SETS AND LOCATIONS

Inside a nondescript building in a secret location in midtown Manhattan lies NYC

Transit’s brand-spanking-new, state-of-the-art Rail Control Center, which handles

the entire subway system’s never-ending flow of human traffic. In The Taking of

Pelham 1 2 3, this is where Garber sits at his desk and wages a battle of life or

death with a Jekyll-and-Hyde-like hijacker.

Although much of the movie was shot on site – due to the doggedness of Tony

Scott’s long-time location manager Janice Polley, along with NYC Transit’s

liaison, Alberteen Anderson – the locale that sets the pulse of the film remained

hidden from cameras.

Anderson initially took the filmmakers to the recently vacated former Rail Control

Center in Brooklyn, made famous in the 1974 version of Pelham. Though

dormant, the space is still functional and serves as a backup to the new center.

“The Brooklyn facility gave us good insight into the layout and how the system

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works,” production designer Chris Seagers says. “We would have loved to film

there, but logistically it wasn’t practical. Everything was hard-wired in, none of

the desks moved, and obviously we couldn’t pull out walls or control the

computer screens.”

After the initial visit to the former facility, Scott and a select few members of the

filmmaking team were granted access to the new facility. “It was like NASA, this

amazing, huge space,” Seagers says. The new Control Center looked like –

according to Seagers – a movie set. “We decided to create our own version,” the

production designer explains. “We took the essence of the new center’s design,

with all its flash, and combined it with bits-and-pieces of details from the older

control room, which was classic New York City, down and dirty.”

The crew erected the fantasy Rail Control Center on a soundstage at Kaufman-

Astoria Studios in Queens. Among its features: 150-foot-long video boards with

interactive playback. “Chris Seagers got the guy who designed the actual NYC

Transit boards to design ours, so it’s virtually a carbon copy,” says Black.

Meanwhile, back down in the tunnels, things were getting cramped. As anyone

who rides the subway at rush hour knows, space is tight. Explains executive

producer Barry Waldman: “When you’re trying to film inside the train operator’s

cab, which is probably five-by-three, there is no way to squeeze in two actors, a

make-up artist, hair, wardrobe, and sound person.”

Not to mention the four, sometimes five, cameras that Scott employed. “Directors

are getting used to having multiple cameras, but Tony definitely brings it to

another level,” cinematographer Tobias Schliessler says. From his perch on an

apple box, Scott quietly guided his multiple camera operators during each take,

like a maestro conducting his orchestra. Even in the smallest of spaces, Scott

often brought in a 360-degree dolly track. Yet not even the director could

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magically fit his actors, crews, and cameras into a closet designed for a solitary

train operator.

The solution: build a better subway car. On stage at Kaufman Astoria Studios,

the crew constructed a car from scratch, using pieces from real trains. NYC

Transit was eager to help; after all, it’s not easy finding ways to recycle 40 tons of

steel. (And yet they do: old subway cars are buried at sea, used to rebuild

eroding barrier reefs.)

The new subway car was designed to accommodate all the cameras the director

could want and more. “We could open all the doors where we wanted to, remove

all the panels that we needed to, light it any way we wanted to, and build

shooting platforms all the way around it,” Waldman says. Built on a hydraulics

system and placed on a track, the car could move 40 feet then stop on a dime.

Even the actors couldn’t tell the faux car from the real deal. “The first time I saw

it, I thought they brought a New York City subway train into the studios,” says

Luis Guzman. “I said, ‘Wow, how did they do that?’ It was just made out of wood

and metal, but it looked absolutely real.”

As any production crew can attest, filming in New York is its own experience.

“It’s a city with nine million people, and the volume of traffic is tremendous,” says

executive producer Barry Waldman. “You don’t get a sense of it until you’re

standing in the middle of a street trying to shoot a scene where there’s nothing

but honking cars that just want to get from point A to point B and really don’t care

that you’re making a movie.”

The “money run” offered an especially challenging sequence to design and

execute. “It was unique in the sense that it wasn’t really a car chase,” explains

Chuck Picerni, Tony Scott’s stunt coordinator for 17 years. “It was about the

jeopardy involved in driving this money to the train station in time.”

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To distinguish his Pelham from the first, Scott aimed to create a more visually

exciting atmosphere by filming part of the “money run” under an elevated train,

almost as homage to another classic New York film of the 1970s, The French

Connection. “There’s such interesting light beneath the elevated train,” says

production designer Chris Seagers. “Though its dark, light punches in through

the buildings which looks great when you’re going at high speed. Tony wanted to

capture that.”

BELOW GROUND: FILMING IN THE SUBWAY

For the uninitiated to New York City, negotiating the subway is like swimming

ocean waters in January: alien, scary, exhilarating. Some five million people

pass through these tunnels each day; learning to master the mysteries of a

modern transport system more than a century old is a rite of passage into New

York City’s urban tribe. Riders try not to think about what might lurk outside the

train’s doors in the pitch black: the occasional trash fire, rats, the unforgiving

third rail.

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 had to confront these challenges and more on a

daily basis in order to make a film with a plot that unfolds below ground. Then

again, movies have a long history of exploring the tunnels, dating back to 1904

when the subway first opened and Thomas Edison mounted a camera on a train

to capture its trek along the path of the city’s first subway.

In July 2007, nine months prior to filming, Tony Scott’s production team arrived in

New York to research and prep for Pelham. Their liaison, and keeper of the key

to all things transit, was Alberteen Anderson, director, Film and Special Events

for NYC Transit’s Department of Corporate Communications. One of the unit’s

primary purposes is to acclimate people not accustomed to working around 400

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tons of moving steel and guarantee their safety. The unit also helps

accommodate a movie company’s special requests. For example, for the 1994

film The Cowboy Way, Anderson’s unit helped get horses onto the Manhattan

Bridge so that Keifer Sutherland and Woody Harrelson could make the leap from

horseback to a racing B-train. And when producers of Money Train and Die Hard

With a Vengeance wanted to buy their very own subway cars, Anderson

managed to fill the order (as both productions happened to coincide with NYC

Transit's scrapping of a fleet of 40-year-old cars).

What NYC Transit granted Pelham was unprecedented access. The team

scouted practically the entire system: tunnels, stations, Grand Central, and the

new Rail Control Center. “In the past, we’ve allowed filming on a platform or

inside a train, but very little filming with actors down on the track,” says Joe

Grodzinsky, Superintendent Rapid Transit Operations, who has overseen several

shoots in a 35-year career. “Pelham shot scenes with the actors on the track as

trains moved past them. That was unique.”

Any production company seeking to film must first enroll in an eight-hour safety-

training course – the same required of any NYC Transit employee who steps foot

in the tunnel. For Pelham, this meant the entire cast and crew, ultimately some

400 people. Anderson says, “I was impressed. Some productions have balked,

but this group understood filming down here was too scary not to do everything

exactly right. The attitude came from the top down: ‘I don’t want to be carried out

of here, I want to go home to my family.’”

In an old, converted public school, where red and green circles resembling track

lights mark exits and entrances, actors and crew learned under the tutelage of

Bob Willis at the NYC Transit Learning Center how to navigate tracks, identify

hazards, and most importantly, avoid the electrical contact rail, better known as

the third rail.

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“John Travolta loved the class because he’s so into transportation,” Willis says.

“Luis Guzman grew up in New York and used to like watching the train yards as

a kid.”

The third rail is just as dangerous as legend would have it. A touch can lose a

limb or a life. “They showed us a photograph of what happens if you hit that third

rail,” Washington says. “And it ain’t nice.”

After class, students hopped a subway to an R station. In regulation boots and

safety vest, flashlight in hand, one by one they descended into the subway.

Movie stars and production assistants alike stepped around garbage, cast-off

syringes, or whatever else the tunnel offered. Also to be avoided: any puddles of

liquid, because, Willis says, “if you’re from New York, you can assume it is what

you think it is.”

Second only to the danger of the third rail is the danger of an oncoming train – in

fact, failing to look both ways is the number one cause of fatalities in the subway.

So what do you do if you’re in the tunnel and you hear the two whistles indicating

a train is coming? “Center yourself between the columns, press your shoulder

against one, place your hand flat against the opposite,” Willis instructs. “Now

don’t move. If you stand with your hands in your pocket, the wind can pull you

right in. And don’t stick your neck out to see if the train is coming!” The train

rumbles down the track with a deafening roar, whipping up dust and dirt (and

who knows what else), tall as a building (too high to see in the windows)… and

all with double-intensity when one train passes in front and another passes

behind. “And don’t turn around to look at it!” Willis barks.

Willis’s lessons were the top priority during filming, even more important than

filming. “Tony Scott listened when we recommended that a scene could be shot

in a safer and more expedient manner,” says Grodzinsky. “We’ve worked with a

lot of movie people before, but Tony was the most approachable and agreeable.

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Every day, he stood on a milk crate and gave a safety talk or made changes

based on our recommendations. The film crew got used to asking Transit

personnel questions before they did anything on or near the track area.”

As production designer Chris Seagers describes it, “Shooting became an

immensely complicated and highly organized set of military maneuvers every

day.”

The Hoyt-Schermerhorn Station in downtown Brooklyn became the shooting

location for a number of sequences: the sniper scene, the criminals’ escape, and

throwing the train operator’s body out of the car. 50 to 100 crewmembers

crammed onto a narrow platform, while beneath them, actors shot in an isolated

section of a dusty, very dark “ghost tunnel” – the track for the now-defunct HH

shuttle, which happened to lay next to the very-much-in-service tracks for the A,

C, and G trains.

Filming was laborious. Every piece of metal – tripods, cameras, booms – was

wrapped in four layers of tape to avoid conducting electricity. The crew built its

own wooden ladders and transit workers covered the third rail with heavy rubber

mats. “Each time the crew completed filming a scene and needed to relocate

personnel and equipment, we would remove the power from all tracks before

permitting production personnel to enter the track area,” remembers Grodzinsky.

“After completing preparations, all nonessential personnel were cleared from the

track and NYCT personnel thoroughly inspected the tracks, making certain not

one piece of equipment or debris remained, before turning the power back on.”

Turning the power back on is not like flipping a light switch. “The process

involves a chain of command and sending men to certain breaker houses,”

explains Glenn Tortorella, superintendent third rail, Power Division. This meant

30-minute delays to shut the power off or on between scenes, as many as nine

times a day.

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Every day the crew grew more used to the foreign surroundings, “and every day

we warned them not to get too comfortable,” recalls Tony Annaruma, a train

service supervisor. “We worry about people becoming too complacent. When

people stop concentrating on their surroundings is when they get hurt. Most of

our fatalities have happened to guys who have worked here 20 years or more.”

Transit personnel went so far as to scrutinize some 200 extras’ shoes before

Scott shot the passenger evacuation scene in the tunnel at Church Avenue. “We

looked at the footwear and pointed out people who shouldn’t be down there,”

Annaruma says. “Some were in high heels, which just aren’t feasible for walking

the tracks at night. “

Annaruma was also on hand when Denzel Washington filmed a scene high atop

the Manhattan Bridge. “Denzel had to stand very close to the track,” says

Annarumma. “When that train barreled by full speed, he was scared. He wasn’t

going to budge. After he was done, he came up to some of us and said, ‘I give

you guys credit.’”

Strangely, in four weeks of filming underground, the tunnel’s most notorious

denizen, the rat (or track rabbit as it is sometimes called), kept a low profile. “I

guess there were too many of us for them to want to mingle,” says actor Luis

Guzman. “It would have gotten stomped.”

With the shoot completed, the MTA’s Anderson considers The Taking of Pelham

1 2 3 the most intense production she has ever experienced. She also calls it

one of the most rewarding. “As intense as it was, I was able to thank the

production company for how professional they were. I never once had a problem

with this company. Everyone went home safe to his or her family.”

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SUBWAY FUN FACTS

Say you’ve hijacked a subway train and you need to escape. How does one

get out of a tunnel?

Ever notice those metal grates on New York City sidewalks painted bright

yellow? They’re exits used to evacuate tunnels during emergencies. Open up the

grate from below, and you may find yourself in the middle of a busy sidewalk or

in a park. One grate even opens up inside an elegant, 19th-century town house

in Brooklyn. The Greek Revival, which the neighbors call “Shaft House,” serves

as a front to conceal a fan plant for the IRT train. At the touch of a button from a

remote location, the plant can supply fresh air, or expel smoke and heat in the

case of a subway fire.

Is New York’s subway the longest in the world?

No, that title goes to the London Underground. Dating back to 1863, the Tube is

also oldest. New York, however, can boast the largest fleet of subway cars,

more than 6,400.

How many miles of track make up the subway system?

NYC Transit reports that the system has roughly 660 miles of track in "revenue

service," that is, to transport passengers. Laid end to end, the subway tracks

would stretch from New York City to Chicago.

Which line offers the longest ride without changing trains?

Take the A train from 207th Street in Manhattan to Far Rockaway in Queens to

experience the single longest line in the world, 31 miles.

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Which station is located the deepest below ground? How low does it go?

The deepest underground station is the 191st Street Station on the No. 1 line in

Manhattan, located 180 feet below street level:

Why are riders called “strap hangers”?

It’s an anachronistic nickname from the days when standing riders held on to

straps suspended from the train’s ceiling.

Where do old subway cars go to die?

From beneath the sidewalk to under the sea, they are “reefed.” They are used in

constructing man-made barriers to promote sea life all along the Atlantic coast.

ABOUT THE CAST

Two-time Academy Award®-winning actor DENZEL WASHINGTON (Walter

Garber) is a man constantly on the move. Never comfortable repeating himself or

his successes, Washington is always in search of new challenges and his

numerous and varied film and stage portrayals bear this out. From Trip, an

embittered runaway slave in Glory, to South African freedom fighter Steven Biko

in Cry Freedom; From Shakespeare's tragic historical figure Richard III, to the

rogue detective, Alonzo in Training Day, Washington has amazed and entertained

us with a rich array of characters distinctly his own.

In late December 2007, Washington directed and co-starred with Academy

Award® winning actor Forest Whitaker in The Great Debaters, a drama based on

the true story of Melvin B. Tolson, a professor at Wiley College, who, in 1935,

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inspired students from the school’s debate team to challenge Harvard in the

national championship.

In November 2007, Washington starred alongside Russell Crowe in Ridley

Scott’s American Gangster. The film grossed $43.6M in its first weekend and

earned Washington his largest opening weekend to date.

March 2006 saw Washington in Spike Lee’s Inside Man. Co-starring Clive Owen

and Jodie Foster, this film took in $29M in its opening weekend, and marking

Washington’s second biggest opening to date.

As 2006 came to an end, Washington thrilled audiences yet again in Touchstone

Pictures’ Déjà Vu, re-teaming with director Tony Scott. In this “flashback”

romantic thriller, Washington plays an ATF agent who travels back in time to

save a woman from being murdered, falling in love with her in the process.

In 2004, Washington collaborated with director Tony Scott on Man on Fire. In

this film, Washington plays an ex marine who has been hired to protect a young

girl, played by Dakota Fanning, from kidnapping threats. That same year,

Washington was also seen in The Manchurian Candidate, a modern day remake

of the 1962 classic film for Paramount Pictures. In the film, directed by Jonathan

Demme, Washington starred along side Meryl Streep and Liev Schreiber, in the

part that Frank Sinatra made famous.

Washington was honored with the Academy Award® for his acclaimed

performance in Training Day, directed by Antoine Fuqua. The film was only one

of two in 2001 that spent two weeks at the number one spot at the box office.

In 2003, Washington was seen in Out of Time, directed by Carl Franklin.

Washington played opposite Eva Mendez and Sanaa Lathan in the murder

mystery thriller for MGM.

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December 2002 marked Denzel Washington’s feature film directorial debut with

Antwone Fisher. The film, which is based on a true-life story, and inspired by the

best-selling autobiography, Finding Fish, follows Fisher, a troubled young sailor

played by newcomer Derek Luke, as he comes to terms with his past. The film

won critical praise, and was awarded the Stanley Kramer Award from the

Producers Guild of America, as well as winning NAACP Awards for Outstanding

Motion Picture and Outstanding Supporting Actor for Washington.

Also in 2002, Washington was seen in John Q, a story about a down-on-his-luck

father whose son is in need of a heart transplant. The film established an

opening day record for President’s Day weekend, grossing $24.1 million. The

film garnered Washington a NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a

Motion Picture.

In September 2000, he starred in Jerry Bruckheimer’s box-office sensation

Remember the Titans, which took in $115M domestic. Earlier that year, he

starred in Universal’s The Hurricane, reteaming with director Norman Jewison.

Washington received a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor and an Academy

Award® nomination (his fourth) for his performance.

In November 1999, he starred in Universal’s The Bone Collector, the adaptation

of Jeffrey Deaver’s novel about the search for a serial killer, co-starring Angelina

Jolie and directed by Phillip Noyce.

In 1998, he starred in the crime thriller Fallen (Warner Bros.) for director Greg

Hoblit, and in Spike Lee’s He Got Game, released by Touchstone (Disney). Also,

he re-teamed with director Ed Zwick in the 20th Century-Fox terrorist thriller The

Siege, co-starring Annette Bening and Bruce Willis.

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In the summer 1996, he starred in the critically acclaimed military drama Courage

Under Fire for his Glory director, Ed Zwick. Later that year, Washington starred

opposite Whitney Houston in Penny Marshall's romantic comedy The Preacher's

Wife.

In 1995, Washington starred opposite Gene Hackman as Navy Lieutenant

Commander Ron Hunter in Tony Scott's underwater action adventure Crimson

Tide; as an ex-cop released from prison to track down a computer-generated

criminal in the futuristic thriller Virtuosity; and as World War II veteran Easy

Rawlins, in the 1940s romantic thriller Devil in a Blue Dress (which Washington's

Mundy Lane Entertainment produced with Jonathan Demme's Clinica

Estetico)..Another critically acclaimed performance was his portrayal of Malcolm

X in director Spike Lee's biographical epic, Malcolm X. MonuFor his portrayal,

Denzel received a number of accolades, including an Academy Award®

nomination for Best Actor.

In addition to his accomplishments on screen, Washington took on a very

different type of role in 2000. He produced the HBO documentary Half Past

Autumn: The Life and Works of Gordon Parks, nominated for two Emmys. Also,

he served as executive producer on Hank Aaron: Chasing The Dream, a

biographical documentary for TBS which was nominated for an Emmy Award.

Additionally, Washington's narration of the legend of "John Henry" was

nominated for a 1996 Grammy Award in the category of Best Spoken Word

Album for Children and he was awarded the 1996 NAACP Image Award for his

performance in the animated children's special Happily Ever After:

Rumpelstiltskin.

A native of Mt. Vernon, New York, Washington had his career sights set on

medicine when he attended Fordham University. During a stint as a summer

camp counselor he appeared in one of their theatre productions; Washington

was bitten by the acting bug and returned to Fordham that year seeking the

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tutelage of Robinson Stone, one of the school's leading professors. Upon

graduation from Fordham, Washington was accepted into San Francisco's

prestigious American Conservatory Theater. Following an intensive year of study

in their theater program, he returned to New York after a brief stop in Los

Angeles.

Washington's professional New York theater career began with Joseph Papp's

Shakespeare in the Park and was quickly followed by numerous off-Broadway

productions including “Ceremonies in Dark Old Men”; “When The Chickens

Came Home to Roost” (in which he portrayed Malcolm X); “One Tiger to a Hill”;

“Man and Superman”; “Othello”; and “A Soldier's Play,” for which he won an Obie

Award. Washington's more recent stage appearances include the Broadway

production of “Checkmates” and “Richard III,” which was produced as part of the

1990 free Shakespeare in the Park series hosted by Joseph Papp's Public

Theatre in New York City.

Washington was 'discovered' by Hollywood when he was cast in 1979 in the

television film “Flesh and Blood.” But it was Washington’s award-winning

performance on stage in “A Soldier's Play” that captured the attention of the

producers of the NBC television series “St. Elsewhere,” and he was soon cast in

that long-running hit series as Dr. Phillip Chandler. His other television credits

include “The George McKenna Story,” “License to Kill,” and “Wilma.”

In 1982, Washington re-created his role from “A Soldier's Play” for Norman

Jewison's film version. Re-titled A Soldier's Story, Denzel's portrayal of Private

Peterson was critically well-received. Washington went on to star in Sidney

Lumet's Power, Richard Attenborough's Cry Freedom, for which he received his

first Oscar® nomination, For Queen and Country, The Mighty Quinn, Heart

Condition, Glory, for which he won the Academy Award® for Best Supporting

Actor, and Spike Lee's Mo' Better Blues. Washington also starred in the action

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adventure film, Ricochet, and in Mira Nair's bittersweet comedy Mississippi

Masala.

Additional film credits include Kenneth Branaugh's film adaptation of Much Ado

About Nothing, Jonathan Demme's controversial Philadelphia with Tom Hanks,

and The Pelican Brief, based on the John Grisham novel.

JOHN TRAVOLTA (Ryder) has been honored twice with Academy Award®

nominations, the latest for his riveting portrayal of a philosophical hit-man in

Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction. He also received BAFTA and Golden Globe

nominations for this highly acclaimed role and was named Best Actor by the Los

Angeles Film Critics Association, among other distinguished awards.

Travolta garnered further praise as a Mafioso-turned-movie producer in the

comedy sensation Get Shorty, winning the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in

a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy. In 1998 Travolta was honored by the

British Academy of Film and Television Arts with the Britannia Award; and in that

same year he received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Chicago Film

Festival. Travolta also won the prestigious Alan J. Pakula Award from the US

Broadcast Critics Association for his performance in A Civil Action, based on the

best-selling book and directed by Steve Zailian. He was nominated again for a

Golden Globe for his performance in Primary Colors, directed by Mike Nichols

and co-starring Emma Thompson and Billy Bob Thornton, and in 2008, he

received his fourth Golden Globe nomination for his role as Edna Turnblad in the

big screen, box office hit Hairspray; as a result of this performance, the Chicago

Film Critics and the Santa Barbara Film Festival decided to recognize John with

a Lifetime Achievement Award for his role in Hairspray.

He previously starred in some of the most monumental films of our generation,

including earning his first Oscar® and Golden Globe nominations for his role in

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the blockbuster Saturday Night Fever, which launched the disco phenomenon in

the 1970's. He went on to star in the big screen version of the long-running

musical Grease and the wildly successful Urban Cowboy, which also influenced

trends in popular culture. Additional film credits include the Brian DePalma

thrillers Carrie and Blowout, as well as Amy Heckerling's hit comedy Look Who's

Talking and Nora Ephron’s comic hit Michael. Travolta starred in Phenomenon

and took an equally distinctive turn as an action star in John Woo's top-grossing

Broken Arrow. He also starred in the classic Face/Off opposite Nicolas Cage

and The General's Daughter co-starring Madeline Stowe. Recently, Travolta

reprised the role of ultra cool Chili Palmer in the Get Shorty sequel Be Cool. In

addition, he starred opposite Scarlett Johansson in the critically acclaimed

independent feature film A Love Song for Bobby Long, which was screened at

the Venice Film Festival, where both Travolta and the film won rave reviews.

Other recent feature film credits include the hit action-thriller Ladder 49 with

Joaquin Phoenix, the movie version of the wildly successful comic book The

Punisher, the drama Basic directed by John McTiernan, the psychological thriller

Domestic Disturbance directed by Harold Becker, the hit action picture Swordfish

with Halle Berry and Hugh Jackman and directed by Dominic Sena, the

successful sci-fi movie Battlefield Earth, based upon the best-selling novel by L.

Ron Hubbard, and Lonely Hearts co-starring James Gandolfini and Salma Hayek

which is based on the true story of the elusive “Lonely Hearts Killers” of the late

1940s.

Most recently, Travolta starred in the big screen musical sensation Hairspray, for

which he received rave reviews and a Golden Globe nomination for his portrayal

of Edna Turnblad. He also recently provided the voice of the lead character in

Disney’s animated hit Bolt. He also starred in the box office hit comedy Wild

Hogs and he will next be seen starring opposite Robin Williams and Kelly

Preston in Disney’s Old Dogs.

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JOHN TURTURRO (Lt. Camonetti) studied at the Yale School of Drama and for

his theatrical debut created the title role of John Patrick Shanley’s “Danny and

the Deep Blue Sea” for which he won an Obie Award and a Theater World

Award. Since then he has performed on stage in “Waiting for Godot,” in the title

role of Bertold Brecht’s “The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui,” and most recently, in

Eduardo De Filippo’s “Souls of Naples,” for which he was nominated for a Drama

Desk Award.

For his work on television, Turturro was nominated for a SAG Award for his work

in the role of Billy Martin in “The Bronx is Burning” in 2008 and for his portrayal of

Howard Cosell in “Monday Night Mayhem” in 2003. In 2004, he won an Emmy

for his guest appearance on the hit series “Monk.”

Turturro has performed in more than 60 films, including Martin Scorcese’s The

Color of Money, Tony Bill’s Five Corners, Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing and

Jungle Fever, Robert Redford’s Quiz Show, Peter Weir’s Fearless, Tom DiCillo’s

Box of Moonlight, Francesco Rosi’s La Tregua, and Joel and Ethan Coen’s

Miller’s Crossing, The Big Lebowski, and O Brother, Where Art Thou. For his

lead role in the Coen Brothers’ Barton Fink, he won the Best Actor Award at the

Cannes Film Festival and the David di Donatello Award. He also appeared in

Robert De Niro’s The Good Shepherd and Anthony Hopkins’ directorial and

writing debut Slipstream.

In 2007, Turturro expanded his fan base with a brand new, younger audience

with his success as Agent Simmons in Michael Bay’s smash hit Transformers.

Other recent films include James McBride’s critically acclaimed Miracle at St.

Anna directed by Spike Lee, the wacky comedy You Don’t Mess with the Zohan

co-written by and starring Adam Sandler, Barry Levinson’s What Just Happened?

with Bruce Willis and Stanley Tucci, and Noah Baumbach’s Margot at the

Wedding starring Nicole Kidman, Jack Black and Jennifer Jason Leigh.

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Turturro can currently be seen in Andrei Konchalovsky’s fantasy Nutcracker: The

Untold Story costarring Elle Fanning, Nathan Lane and Richard E. Grant.

For his directorial debut Mac, Turturro won the Camera d’Or from the Cannes

Film Festival. He has directed two other films Illuminata and Romance &

Cigarettes.

LUIS GUZMAN’s (Ramos) most recent feature film releases include Nothing Like

the Holidays with Freddy Rodriguez, Alfred Molina and John Leguizamo; Yes

Man with Jim Carrey; Fighting with Terence Howard and Channing Tatum; He’s

Just Not That Into You with Drew Barrymore and Scarlett Johansson; and The

Cleaner, opposite Samuel L. Jackson, directed by Renny Harlin. He also voiced

a character in Disney’s Beverly Hills Chihuahua.

Guzman has also played substantial roles in War with Jason Statham and Jet Li;

Todd Phillips’ School for Scoundrels; Richard Linklater’s Fast Food Nation;

Waiting, with Anna Faris and Ryan Reynolds; Dreamer, with Kurt Russell and

Dakota Fanning; Carlito’s Way, with Al Pacino and Sean Penn; Carlito’s Way:

Rise to Power, with Mario Van Peebles and Sean Combs; Lemony Snicket’s

Series of Unfortunate Events, with Jim Carrey; Anger Management, with Adam

Sandler and Jack Nicholson; and Confidence with Ed Burns and Dustin Hoffman,

directed by James Foley. Guzman also starred in Punch-Drunk Love, with Adam

Sandler, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, and Welcome to Collinwood with

George Clooney.

The former social worker has become a well-known leading and character actor,

appearing in over 60 feature films. Born in Puerto Rico, Guzman grew up in

Manhattan. He graduated from City College, after which he worked as a youth

counselor at the Henry Street Settlement House while performing in street

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theater and independent films. Mr. Guzman's first big break was a guest

appearance on the NBC series “Miami Vice.”

Guzman has appeared in three films for Sidney Lumet (Family Business, Guilty

as Sin, and Q&A), two films for Brian De Palma (Snake Eyes and Carlito's Way)

three films for Paul Thomas Anderson (Magnolia, Boogie Nights, and Punch

Drunk Love), and three films for Steven Soderbergh (Traffic, The Limey, for

which Guzman received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best

Supporting Actor, and Out of Sight).

Guzman's other films include Anthony Minghella's Mr. Wonderful, Ridley Scott's

Black Rain, The Hard Way, Cadillac Man, True Believer, and The Count of Monte

Cristo, directed by Kevin Reynolds.

For television, Guzman recently played a lead role in the HBO series “John from

Cincinnati.”

Early in his career, Guzman made guest appearances on many television shows,

including ABC's “NYPD Blue,” NBC's “Law & Order,” and HBO's “Oz.”

MICHAEL RISPOLI (John Johnson) has amassed an impressive film and television career

in drama, comedy, and in thrillers. His film credits include Disney's Invincible opposite

Mark Wahlberg, The Weather Man opposite Nicolas Cage and Michael Caine, Mr. 3000

opposite Bernie Mac, Lonely Hearts opposite John Travolta, Death to Smoochy directed

by Danny DeVito, Spike Lee's Summer of Sam, John Dahl's Rounders, and Brian De

Palma's Snake Eyes. Rispoli played the lead in Two Family House, which won the

Sundance Film Festival Audience Award in 2000. Some of his other feature credits

include See You in September, Black Irish, One Last Thing, Scared City, Volcano, To Die

For, Feeling Minnesota, While You Were Sleeping, The Juror, and One Tough Cop.

30

Rispoli is perhaps best known for his recurring role as Jackie Aprile in the HBO series,

“The Sopranos.” He was recently seen as Jimmy Breslin in ESPN miniseries, “The Bronx

is Burning,” starred in Dean Devlin's TNT series “Talk to Me,” David Milch's CBS series

“Big Apple,” the NBC pilot “Fort Pit” and numerous other television series including “Naked

Hotel,” “Furst Family,” “The Beat,” “Russo,” and “Bram and Alice.” His recurring roles for

television are “The Black Donnellys,” “Third Watch,” and “10-8.” He has also appeared as

a guest lead in “E.R.,” “C.S.I. Crime Scene Investigation,” and “Law & Order: Criminal

Intent.”

Rispoli began his career on stage performing in the Circle Rep/Steppenwolf revival of

“Balm in Gilead,” directed by John Malkovich. He is a co-founder of the Willow Cabin

Theatre Company. The WCTC staged a production of “Wilder, Wilder, Wilder - Three by

Thornton” that moved to off-Broadway and then to Broadway, earning a Tony nomination.

In 2004, Rispoli starred and received rave reviews in the off-Broadway production of the

play “Magic Hands Freddy” opposite Ralph Macchio. Rispoli has appeared in New York

and regional theatre in productions of “Macbeth,” “Tartuffe,” “A Midsummer Night's

Dream,” and “O'Neill's Sea Plays,” among many others. Since then, he has accumulated

an extensive list of movie, television and stage credits.

Rispoli resides in New York with his wife and three children.

JAMES GANDOLFINI (Mayor) has made his mark in a variety of roles in over

twenty motion pictures and television programs. Currently he is on stage in the

Broadway production God of Carnage starring along side Marcia Gay Harden,

Jeff Daniels and Hope Davis. Next, he can be seen in In the Loop, the

independent feature being released by IFC Films as well as Where the Wild

Things Are director Spike Jonze's upcoming adaptation of Maurice Sendak's

classic children's story. Gandolfini last wrapped production on Welcome to the

Rileys’, a film with Kristen Stewart and Melissa Leo.

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On the small screen, he executive produced the Emmy-nominated HBO

Documentary Film Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq, a moving documentary

that surveys the physical and emotional cost of war through soldiers' memories of

the day in Iraq. Gandolfini conducted interviews in which the soldiers share their

feelings on their future, their severe disabilities and their devotion to the country.

Gandolfini also starred in the HBO Emmy Award-winning drama “The Sopranos,”

where he portrayed the series lead, Tony Soprano. His portrayal of mob boss

Tony Soprano brought him three Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award for

Best Actor in a Drama Series. He has won four Screen Actors Guild Awards,

including two for Outstanding Male Actor in a Drama Series and two shared with

“The Sopranos” cast for Outstanding Ensemble Cast.

Gandolfini's other films include Romance & Cigarettes, a film in which he starred

opposite Susan Sarandon and Kate Winslet, directed by John Turturro with Joel

and Ethan Coen producing; Lonely Hearts with John Travolta and Salma Hayek;

director Steve Zaillian's All the King's Men, starring opposite Sean Penn and

Jude Law; Mike Mitchell's Surviving Christmas, opposite Ben Affleck; the Coen

brothers The Man Who Wasn't There; The Last Castle, directed by Rod Lurie and

starring Robert Redford; Gore Verbinski's The Mexican, starring Brad Pitt and

Julia Roberts; Joel Schumacher's Eight Millimeter with Nicolas Cage and Joaquin

Phoenix; Steve Zaillian's A Civil Action, with John Travolta and Robert Duvall;

Peter Chelsom's The Mighty, with Sharon Stone; Nick Cassavetes' She's So

Lovely, starring Sean Penn and Robin Wright-Penn; Fallen, directed by Gregory

Hoblit, with Denzel Washington; Sidney Lumet's Night Falls on Manhattan, with

Andy Garcia and Lena Olin; Brian Gibson's The Juror, with Alec Baldwin and

Demi Moore; Get Shorty, with Danny DeVito and John Travolta; Tony Scott's

Crimson Tide, starring Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington; Angie, with

Geena Davis; and his first Tony Scott picture, True Romance, starring Christian

Slater and Patricia Arquette.

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Born in Westwood, New Jersey, Gandolfini graduated from Rutgers University

before beginning his acting career in New York theatre. He made his Broadway

debut in the 1992 revival of A Streetcar Named Desire with Alec Baldwin and

Jessica Lange. He currently resides in New York.

RAMON RODRIGUEZ (Delgado) is fast becoming one of Hollywood’s most

promising young actors. Having completed starring roles in two of this summer’s

biggest blockbuster films, Rodriguez is poised for an exciting ride.

Rodriguez just wrapped Paramount Pictures’ tentpole Transformers: Revenge of

the Fallen, directed by Michael Bay.

Rodriguez’s passion for his craft does not stop with big studio pictures. Focusing

on quality characters and scripts that he can deeply delve into, Rodriguez was

honored to be cast in the plum role of Renaldo for Seasons 4 and 5 of HBO’s

The Wire. Immediately following his stint on The Wire, Rodriguez starred in

ABC’s “Day Break” alongside Taye Diggs. He moved audiences and critics alike

in the role of Eduardo in the critically acclaimed indie film Bella which won the

Audience Award at The Toronto Film Festival. He has appeared in Newline’s

Pride and Glory with Edward Norton and Colin Farrell and shot Surfer, Dude with

Matthew McConaughey.

Rodriguez, who grew up on Manhattan’s Lower East Side dreamed of joining the

NBA as a child. A college basketball star, he was encouraged to enter a Nike

basketball trick competition. After winning the competition, Rodriguez was put on

the Nike Freestyle tour and in a series of Nike commercials. Guest starring

television appearances on shows like “Law and Order: SVU” and “Rescue Me”

soon followed as Rodriguez began to make his mark.

In addition to acting, Rodriguez continues to run a basketball performance group

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called Project Playground that appears during half-time shows at NBA and

college basketball games and in television and movies. He is an avid salsa

dancer and spent time in the professional Abakua Latin Dance Company. He is

currently writing a script in his native New York City.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

TONY SCOTT (Director/Producer) has created a series of landmark action films,

mastering the balance of technical virtuosity with an exuberant sense of tempo.

Scott, a member of the exclusive club of billion dollar-grossing directors, has

been one of mainstream Hollywood's more reliable and stylish action filmmakers

since the mid-1980s. With one high profile project set for release and many more

in development, Scott shows no sign of slowing the pace.

Prior to The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, Scott directed Déjà Vu. The film marked

Scott’s third collaboration with Denzel Washington and his sixth collaboration

with Jerry Bruckheimer. In 1995, he directed Crimson Tide, starring Washington

and Gene Hackman and produced by Bruckheimer, which received both critical

and popular acclaim. Scott went on to direct Washington again in the 2004 action

thriller Man on Fire, this time alongside Dakota Fanning and Christopher Walken.

Scott made his feature debut in 1983 with the modern vampire story The Hunger,

starring Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie, and Susan Sarandon. The movie was

adapted as a trilogy for Showtime in 1998, in which Scott directed one episode

starring Giovanni Ribisi and David Bowie. In 1986, Scott directed Tom Cruise

and Kelly McGillis in the mega-blockbuster Top Gun; the film’s stunning aerial

sequences helped make it a global success. Scott confirmed his place as one of

Hollywood's premiere action directors the following year with Beverly Hills Cop II,

starring Eddie Murphy.

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Scott's ability to mine box office gold from a deft blending of material and talent

was evident in Touchstone Pictures' Enemy of the State. Reuniting Scott with

Gene Hackman and producer Jerry Bruckheimer, the political thriller starring Will

Smith, became one of the biggest hits of 1998. In 2001, Scott directed

Universal’s Spy Game, a taut, ambitious thriller that reunited screen giants

Robert Redford and Brad Pitt. In 2005, after years of development, Scott finally

brought his beloved project Domino to the screen with an all-star cast lead by

Kiera Knightley portraying real life bounty hunter Domino Harvey.

Scott’s Additional film credits include: Revenge (1988), with Kevin Costner and

Anthony Quinn; Days of Thunder (1990), starring Tom Cruise and Robert Duvall;

The Last Boy Scout (1991), with Bruce Willis; the critically acclaimed True

Romance (1993), starring Christian Slater, Roseanna Arquette and Christopher

Walken, with a script by Quentin Tarantino; and The Fan (1996), starring Robert

De Niro and Wesley Snipes.

Born in Newcastle, Tyne and Wear, England, Scott attended the Sunderland Art

School, where he received a fine arts degree in painting. While completing a

yearlong post-graduate study at Leeds College, he developed an interest in

cinematography and made One of the Missing, a half hour film financed by the

British Film Institute and based on an Ambrose Bierce short story. He then went

on to earn his Master of Fine Arts degree at the Royal College of Arts,

completing another film for the British Film Institute, Loving Memory, from an

original script financed by Albert Finney.

In 1973, Scott partnered with brother Ridley to form the London-based

commercial production company, RSA. Over the next decade, Scott created

some of the world’s most entertaining and memorable commercials, honing his

film vocabulary and picking up every major honor in the field, including: a number

of Clio awards, several Silver and Gold Lion Awards from the Cannes

International Television/Cinema Commercials Festival, and London’s prestigious

35

Designers & Art Directors Award. While working as a commercial director, Scott

also made three movies for television: two documentaries and a one-hour special

entitled “Author of Beltraffio” from the story by Henry James. In 2002, under the

RSA banner, Scott produced a series of stylish short film adver-tainments for

automaker BMW starring Clive Owen. Scott himself directed one of these shorts

entitled Beat the Devil that featured Owen, James Brown and Gary Oldman.

In 1995, the two brothers went on to form the film and television production

company Scott Free. With offices in Los Angeles and London, the Scott’s have

produced such films as In Her Shoes, Tristan + Isolde, and the Academy

Award®-nominated The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert

Ford, starring Brad Pitt. They also executive produce the hit CBS series

“Numbers”, currently in its fifth season.

TODD BLACK (Producer) counts among his recent feature film credits The

Pursuit of Happyness, starring Will Smith, and The Great Debaters, starring

Denzel Washington and Forrest Whitaker. He was nominated for a Golden Globe

for Best Picture (Drama) for The Great Debaters. In addition, Black was honored

with the Producers Guild’s Stanley Kramer Award for The Great Debaters and for

his 2002 film Antwone Fisher.

Black and Escape Artists also recently produced Seven Pounds, starring Will

Smith and directed by Gabriele Muccino, for Columbia Pictures, and Knowing,

starring Nicolas Cage and directed by Alex Proyas, for Summit Entertainment.

Born in Dallas and raised in Los Angeles, Black attended the theatre program at

the University of Southern California. He began his entertainment career as a

casting associate.

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In 1995, Black became President of Motion Picture Production at Sony’s

Mandalay Entertainment and managed such films as Donnie Brasco, Seven

Years in Tibet, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Les Miserables and Wild

Things.

In January 2000, Black, along with his partner Jason Blumenthal, merged with

the Steve Tisch Company to form Escape Artists, an independently financed

company housed at Sony Pictures. Their first produced movie was A Knight’s

Tale, starring Heath Ledger.

Black’s acclaimed drama Antwone Fisher was a decade-long labor of love that

marked Academy Award®-winner Denzel Washington’s directorial debut and

launched the career of screenwriter Antwone Fisher. In 2005, The Weather Man

marked Black’s second collaboration with writer Steve Conrad. The pair met

when Black discovered Conrad’s first screenplay, Wrestling Ernest Hemingway,

which he produced for director Randa Haines.

JASON BLUMENTHAL (Producer) was born and raised in Los Angeles and

attended Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

After graduation, he joined Wizan/Black Films in 1990. There, Blumenthal was

involved with the development and production of Iron Eagle II and Split

Decisions, a family drama about three generations of prizefighters that starred

Gene Hackman. He also worked on The Guardian, directed by William Friedkin;

Short Time, with Dabney Coleman and Teri Garr; and Class Act, starring Kid N’

Play. Blumenthal executive produced Becoming Colette, written by Ruth Graham

Black, and Fire in the Sky.

Other credits include Wrestling Ernest Hemingway, directed by Randa Haines

and starring Robert Duvall, Richard Harris and Shirley MacLaine; Dunston

Checks In, starring Jason Alexander, Faye Dunaway and Rupert Everett; A

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Family Thing, starring James Earl Jones and Robert Duvall; and Bio-Dome,

starring Pauly Shore and Stephen Baldwin.

Blumenthal was Senior Vice President of feature production at Mandalay

Entertainment, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, from the company’s

inception in 1995 through March of 1998. During his tenure, Blumenthal

managed Mandalay’s production slate and films such as The Fan, starring

Robert De Niro and Wesley Snipes; Donnie Brasco, starring Al Pacino and

Johnny Depp; Seven Years in Tibet, starring Brad Pitt; I Know What You Did Last

Summer, No. 1 at the box office for three weeks while grossing $130 million

worldwide; I Still Know What You Did Last Summer; Les Miserables, starring

Liam Neeson and Uma Thurman; Wild Things, starring Neve Campbell, Kevin

Bacon and Matt Dillon; Gloria, starring Sharon Stone; and Deep End of the

Ocean, starring Michelle Pfeiffer.

In April 1998, Blumenthal and his partner Todd Black formed Black & Blu

Entertainment, entering into a first-look production deal at Sony Pictures

Entertainment. In 2001, Black & Blu merged with the Steve Tisch Co. (Forrest

Gump) to become Escape Artists, while still maintaining their first-look deal at

Sony Pictures. Escape Artists has since produced A Knight’s Tale, starring Heath

Ledger; Antwone Fisher, directed by and starring Denzel Washington; The

Pursuit of Happyness, starring Will Smith and directed by Gabriele Muccino; and

The Weather Man, starring Nicolas Cage and Michael Caine; Seven Pounds,

which reunited Smith and Muccino; and, most recently, Knowing, starring Nicolas

Cage and directed by Alex Proyas.

STEVE TISCH (Producer) is responsible for 1994’s Academy Award®-winning

Best Picture Forrest Gump, starring Tom Hanks, as well as launching Tom

Cruise’s career with the sleeper hit Risky Business in 1983. He also served as

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Executive Producer on Guy Ritchie’s Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels,

Snatch and the critically-acclaimed American History X, starring Edward Norton.

In 2005, Tisch was named Chairman and Executive Vice President of the New

York Giants of the NFL. In 2008, the Giants became Super Bowl Champions for

the third time in NFL history. Tisch has the distinction of being the only

Hollywood producer with both an Academy Award® and The Lombardi Trophy.

Tisch is a partner in Escape Artists, a production company formed in 2001,

based at Sony Pictures Entertainment. Escape Artists released The Pursuit of

Happyness, starring Will Smith and Thandie Newton, in December of 2006, and

The Weather Man, starring Nicolas Cage and Michael Caine in the fall of 2005.

His most recent credits are Seven Pounds, which reunited Smith with his Pursuit

of Happyness director, Gabriele Muccino, and Knowing, starring Nicolas Cage for

director Alex Proyas.

In addition, Tisch contributes his time and financial resources to such

organizations as the ERAS Center, Pediatric AIDS Foundation and the Women’s

Cancer Research Foundation. Tisch is a member of the Board of Advisors at the

Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, Board of Trustees of The Geffen

Theatre in Los Angeles, The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and is

on the Board of Trustees of the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Cancer Center at

Duke University.

Academy Award®-winner BRIAN HELGELAND (Screenplay) re-teams with

director Tony Scott, after having penned Scott's Man on Fire, starring Denzel

Washington, in 2004.

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Helgeland has written or co-written sixteen feature films, including L.A.

Confidential, for which he won an Academy Award® for best adapted screenplay,

and Mystic River, for which he was nominated for the best adapted screenplay

Oscar®.

Helgeland wrote the original screenplay for Conspiracy Theory, starring Julia

Roberts and Mel Gibson, and also wrote and directed the films A Knight's Tale,

starring Heath Ledger, and Payback, starring Mel Gibson. Helgeland is also the

screenwriter on the upcoming Green Zone starring Matt Damon and directed by

Paul Greengrass.

JOHN GODEY (Book by), the pen name of Morton Freedgood, was born in

Brooklyn, New York, in 1912. A graduate of City College, Godey had several

articles and short stories published in Cosmopolitan, Collier's, Esquire, and other

magazines while working full time in the motion picture industry in New York in

the 1940s. Godey held publicity posts for such studios as United Artists, 20th

Century Fox, and Paramount, before he decided to focus on his writing, while

continuing to work part-time for the movie business.

His first novel The Wall-to-Wall Trap was published under his own name in 1957.

Later, Freedgood decided to use the pen name John Godey, borrowed from the

title of a 19th-century women's publication, to differentiate his crime novels from

his more literary writing.

As John Godey, he achieved commercial success with the books A Thrill a

Minute With Jack Albany, Never Put Off Till Tomorrow What You Can Kill Today

and The Three Worlds of Johnny Handsome. The Taking of Pelham One Two

Three, his novel about the hijacking of a New York City subway train, was a best

seller in 1973 and was made into a hit movie starring Walter Matthau, Robert

Shaw, Martin Balsam, and Hector Elizondo, in 1974.

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Other feature adaptations of Godey’s books include Never a Dull Moment (1968),

starring Dick Van Dyke and Edward G. Robinson, Johnny Handsome (1989),

starring Ellen Barkin, Mickey Rourke, and Elizabeth McGovern. Television

adaptations of his novels include Never a Dull Moment for Disneyland and The

Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1998) with Edward James Olmos and Vincent

D’Onofrio.

Godey went on to write four other thrillers: The Talisman, published in 1976, The

Snake (1978), Nella (1981), and Fatal Beauty (1984). Godey’s thrillers were

translated into many languages, including Bengali, Catalan, Spanish, French,

Danish, Dutch, French, German, Hungarian, Japanese, Maylayan, Norwegian,

Portuguese, and Swedish.

He died April 16, 2006 in his home in West New York, New Jersey.

BARRY WALDMAN (Executive Producer) recently worked with director Tony

Scott on Déjà Vu, starring Denzel Washington, and on Domino, with Keira

Knightley.

Waldman’s collaboration with producer Jerry Bruckheimer includes such films as

National Treasure and its sequel National Treasure: Book of Secrets, Bad Boys

and Bad Boys II, Pearl Harbor, Gone in 60 Seconds, Armageddon, Kangaroo

Jack, and The Rock. Prior to producing, he acted as the production manager on

Batman & Robin and The Craft.

Born and raised in New York, Waldman moved to Florida to complete his studies

at the University of Miami. Upon graduation, he paid his dues as a production

assistant before quickly moving up the ranks to become an assistant director on

various independent films and television programs. He first met producer Jerry

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Bruckheimer and director Michael Bay when he worked on the second unit of the

original Bad Boys, which sparked a long running association with both

entertainment moguls.

Waldman realized his ambition as he quickly progressed to producing and

production managing such popular television shows as Key West and Dead at

21, which garnered a Genesis Award and a CableACE nomination. Another

highlight included producing a documentary shot on location in Nicaragua,

Honduras, and Costa Rica depicting the war between the Sandanistas and

Contras. When Waldman decided to make a transition to feature films, he

relocated to Los Angeles and has continued to work non-stop on some of the

industry’s most prestigious big-budget projects.

MICHAEL COSTIGAN (Executive Producer) is president of Scott Free,

Ridley and Tony Scott's production company, which is based at 20th

Century Fox. Scott Free most recently produced Body of Lies, directed by

Ridley Scott, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe, and based

on the novel by Washington Post correspondent David Ignatius for Warner

Brothers. Scott Free is in post-production on Tell-Tale, a psychological

thriller directed by Michael Cuesta (Dexter, L.I.E.) starring Josh Lucas,

Lena Headey and Brian Cox, and is currently shooting Cracks, which

Jordan Scott is directing, starring Eva Green.

Costigan made the transition to producing movies in 2004 with Brokeback

Mountain. Directed by Ang Lee and adapted from the Annie Proulx short

story by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana. The film was nominated for

the Academy Award® for Best Picture, and won Oscars® for Best Director

and Best Screenplay.

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Costigan began his career at Sony Pictures, where he was a production

executive for nine years. As Executive Vice President of Production, he

oversaw the acquisition, development and production of films including

Milos Forman's Academy Award®-nominated The People vs. Larry Flynt;

James Mangold's Girl, Interrupted; McG's first installment of Charlie’s

Angels; Guy Ritchie’s Snatch; Gus Van Sant's acclaimed To Die For;

Andrew Niccol's debut film Gattaca; and Wes Anderson's debut feature

Bottle Rocket.

RYAN KAVANAUGH (Executive Producer) is a principal of Relativity Media,

LLC, a financing, consulting and production company that structures slate

financing for both major studios and independent production entities.

Kavanaugh, along with his Relativity partner, Lynwood Spinks, creates business

and financial structures for a number of studios, production companies and

producers, and has introduced more than $3.2 billion of capital to such

structures. Clients and deals include Marvel, Atmosphere Entertainment MM and

French distributor/sales agent Exception Wild Bunch, among others.

Kavanaugh recently created a unique financing package, Gun Hill Road, LLC,

which provides discrete and separate funds for both Sony Pictures Entertainment

and Universal Pictures, marking the first time two studios have received funds

from the same funding source and providing production funding for a total of 22

films in various stages of production and release. He facilitated a $528-million

multipicture co-financing arrangement for Warner Bros. Pictures, as well as a

$525-million financing deal for Marvel Enterprises, and structured and raised a

120-million euro acquisition, production and distribution fund for Exception Wild

Bunch S.A., the French distribution and sales company founded by former

StudioCanal management.

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Through its partnership with Virtual Studios, Relativity finances two to three

pictures per month. Kavanaugh recently arranged the financing for and will be

executive producer of Conquistador, to be directed by Cannes and Sundance

award winner Andrucha Waddington and star Emmy-and three-time-Golden

Globe-nominated actor Antonio Banderas; Morgan's Summit, written and to be

directed by Academy Award® winner Tom Schulman; and The Great Pretender,

starring Emmy-and Golden Globe-nominated actor Ewan McGregor. In addition,

Kavanaugh arranged the financing to bring Top Cow Productions' Witchblade to

the big screen, with production beginning last year on two feature films to be shot

back-to-back. The films are based on the best-selling action-fantasy comic book,

which also earned a loyal following as a TNT television series.

Kavanaugh also arranged the financing for and was executive producer of two

films for Mark Canton's Atmosphere Entertainment MM: Full of It and George A.

Romero's Land of the Dead. Recently, he has executive produced films including

The International, The Tale of Despereaux, Death Race, 21, The Bank Job,

Charlie Wilson's War, 3:10 to Yuma, Gridiron Gang, I Now Pronounce You Chuck

& Larry, and The Kingdom.

Prior to his work with Relativity, Kavanaugh started a venture capital company at

the age of 22, and during that time raised and invested more than $400 million in

equity for a number of venture and private-equity transactions.

TOBIAS SCHLIESSLER, ASC (Director of Photography) recently lensed the

action/drama Hancock for director Peter Berg. He had previously collaborated

with Berg on the high school football drama Friday Night Lights, and the

action/drama The Rundown. Schliessler’s motion picture credits also include

Dreamgirls, for director Bill Condon, and Bait, directed by Antoine Fuqua.

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Schliessler has also served as the cinematographer on numerous telefilms,

including The Long Way Home, Outrage, The Escape, The Limbic Region, and

Mandela and de Klerk.

A native of Germany, Schliessler studied filmmaking at Simon Fraser University

in British Columbia, Canada. He began his career shooting documentaries, and

then segued into independent features, television movies, music videos, and

commercials.

Schliessler was honored in consecutive years by the Association of Independent

Commercial Producers (AICP) for his cinematography on two celebrated

television spots: in 2000 for Audi’s “Wake-Up” commercial, and the following

year for the Lincoln Financial spot, “Doctor.” Both are now part of the permanent

archives of The Museum of Modern Art’s Department of Film and Video in New

York City. His commercial work also includes ads for such products as Lexus,

Ford, AOL, and AT&T.

CHRIS SEAGERS (Production Designer) began his association with Tony Scott

as a supervising art director and production designer for the Moroccan portion of

Spy Game, and most recently worked for Scott on Déjà Vu, Man on Fire, and

Domino.

Seagers was the production designer on the spy spoof Johnny English, and the

supervising art director on Captain Corelli’s Mandolin and The End of the Affair.

His other credits as art director include Saving Private Ryan, for which he was

part of the design team that was nominated for the prestigious Art Directors Guild

Award for Excellence in Production Design, The Good Thief, The Crying Game,

and A Kiss Before Dying.

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CHRIS LEBENZON, A.C.E. (Editor) has teamed up many times with Tony Scott,

and twice received Academy Award® nominations for his work with the director:

on the hit films Crimson Tide and Top Gun.

Lebenzon also collaborated with Scott on such films as Déjà Vu, Enemy of The

State, Days of Thunder, The Last Boy Scout, Revenge, and Beverly Hills Cop 2.

Lebenzon has also collaborated numerous times with director Tim Burton on

such films as Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Charlie and the

Chocolate Factory, Corpse Bride, Big Fish, Planet of the Apes, Sleepy Hollow,

Mars Attacks, Ed Wood, Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, and

Batman Returns. Among his other credits are Pearl Harbor, Gone in Sixty

Seconds, Armageddon, and Con Air, all for producer Jerry Bruckheimer, as well

as Eragon, Radio, XXX, Midnight Run, and Weird Science.

RENÉE EHRLICH KALFUS (Costume Designer) most recently designed the

costumes for the upcoming films What Happens in Vegas…, starring Ashton

Kutcher, Cameron Diaz, and Queen Latifah; and Baby Mama, starring Tina Fey,

Amy Poehler, Greg Kinnear, and Sigourney Weaver. Other recent credits

include Perfect Stranger, starring Bruce Willis and Halle Berry and directed by

James Foley and Robert Benton’s The Feast of Love, starring Greg Kinnear,

Morgan Freeman, Rhada Mitchell, and Selma Blair.

Kalfus has also designed a number of films with director Lasse Hallstrom. This

includes Once Around, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, The Cider House

Rules, The Shipping News, and Chocolat, for which Kalfus received BAFTA and

Costume Designers Guild Award nominations.

The designer’s other films include Game 6, Ladder 49, The Life of David Gale,

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Pay it Forward, Snow Falling on Cedars, Addicted to Love, The Evening Star,

Dead Man Walking, Let It Be Me, Safe Passage, With Honors, and the TV film

Crazy in Love.

HARRY GREGSON-WILLIAMS (Music) is one of Hollywood's most sought after

composers, working on a variety of high-profile projects, both animated and live-

action. Over the last few years, Gregson-Williams has scored some of the

industries biggest blockbusters including Shrek the Third, The Chronicles of

Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe (for which he received

nominations for a Golden Globe and Grammy, Shrek (for which he received a

BAFTA nomination), Shrek 2, and Chicken Run. He most recently wrote the

score for Gone Baby Gone, which marked the directorial debut of Ben Affleck,

and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.

Gregson-Williams has collaborated on several movies with director Tony Scott

including Man on Fire, Domino, Spy Game and Déjà Vu, as well as three films

with Joel Schumacher - the thriller Phone Booth, Veronica Guerin and The

Number 23. His other film credits include Seraphim Falls, Kingdom of Heaven

(nominated for a Classical Brit award and winning a Golden Satellite award),

Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, Enemy of the State, The Replacement

Killers, Smilla's Sense of Snow, and Antz.

Born in England to a musical family, Gregson-Williams earned a scholarship from

the music school of St. John's College in Cambridge at the age of seven. By age

13, his singing had been featured on over a dozen records, and he subsequently

earned a coveted spot at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.

He started his film career as an orchestrator and arranger for composer Stanley

Myers, and went on to compose his first scores for the veteran English director,

Nicolas Roeg. Gregson-Williams' initiation in to Hollywood film scoring was then

facilitated by his collaboration and friendship with Oscar®-winning composer

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Hans Zimmer. This resulted in Gregson-Williams providing music for such films

as The Rock, Broken Arrow, The Fan, Muppet Treasure Island, Armageddon, As

Good as it Gets, and The Prince of Egypt. Gregson-Williams has conducted

acclaimed concerts of his music from The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The

Witch and The Wardrobe in Madrid in 2006 and in Denver in 2007. Upcoming

projects include Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and Shrek Goes Fourth.

“ACADEMY AWARD®” and “OSCAR®” are the registered trademarks and

service marks of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.”